Precious metals have a multitude of uses which range from catalysis and conductors, to drug delivery vehicles and coinage. Identifying locations of precious metals in mines and surface deposits has long been a challenge. Current methods involve visual inspection, panning, sifting, assaying, and the like. Often these methods can be time consuming and may be inaccurate. For example, mining operations in vertical wellbores and horizontal drilling systems routinely collect samples from locations as formation rock is removed. Samples from removed material are typically taken to a testing site for assaying. This can often involve hours or more of delay before determining whether precious metals have been located. In some drilling operations further drilling can damage precious metal recovery options such that delays in assaying result in delays in operation. Further, precious metal detection also involves various surface scanning technologies which range from spurious to respectable technologies. However, each system has drawbacks ranging from poor sensitivity to poor accuracy.